they may have led him into a false sense of security in the novel...but in the movie, it was AOTC all over again except that Anakin tapped into his hatred. Dooku beat the double team quite easily in the movie and was actually having his way with Anakin until he encouraged him to unleash his anger.

Anyone here play sports? The best way to get inside someone's head is if you know mistakes they have made and go running in

Case in point. Episode 2, anakin goes running in like crazy...get majorly whipped. Later when he comes to obi's rescue, well we know he looses righty.

Episode 3, "My powers have doubled since I met you" Again anakin is ready for the fight..if I recall, even makes the first swing. Dooku responds "Good twice the pride double the fall"

To me thats the equivalent of playing baseball and telling a person they cant hit or or something more...salty,,,,along those lines. Its obvious Dooku was goading anakin on. As far as his powers issues....I think it was just a case of over powering a person. He was able to over power dooku....do the parry thing to chopping off his hands. I dont care how strong you are in the force.....when it comes to lightsaber combat, the stronger person is going to get stronger lightsaber hits. We see this in ESB where vader literally parry's luke DOWN the stairs.

When anakin first faced dooku he was supposed to be around 20....Now he is like 23 or so...Thats a lot of time to "beef up". And on top of that, anakin had probably twice the experience he had in ep3 then ep2, that being the cloan wars. We never really saw dooku do much in the cloan wars, combat wise, atleast not on the scale anakin had done.

I think this is a major flaw in the Sith, they talk too much during battle at the wrong time. Palps did this in ROTJ.

That's an excellent observation.

And talking too much seems to afflict other movie villains as well.
Ever notice in the James Bond films that once the bad
guy captures Bond, they seem hellbent on revealing
every detail of their dastardly scheme to Bond?
Thanks guys for all that exposition! I'll use it
in the third act!

Well, in many ways, isn't the Anakin/Dooku fight in ROTS meant to parallel the Luke/Vader fight from ROTJ? Not perfectly, not exactly, but in many ways?

As I recall, Luke really took it to Vader when Vader goaded him re Leia, causing Luke to unleash his full power...and his anger. Luke overpowers Vader, has him down, is arguably ready to land the death blow as the Emperor cackles...when Luke calms, sees the simiarities between himself and Vader, remebers his mission, returns to the Light side, and makes the right decision...

In ROTS, it appears to me that Dooku and Anakin are relatively evenly matched, with Dooku seeming very confident, until Dooku injures Obi-Wan and goads Anakin, and Anakin cuts loose...angrily. Then, when he as Dooku at this mercy...much as Luke had Vader at HIS mercy... Anakin makes the WRONG decision, to act out of vengeance, goaded by Palpatine..and kills Dooku.

In both fights, the Jedi combatant is goaded, and gives in to anger, which temporarily increases their apparent raw power ... in one case, however, the anger passes, or is rejected, while in the other, it is embraced...